Eleven faculty members from the Departments of History and Chemistry and from the College of Nursing will participate in the first WAC Fellows in Residence Program which begins on February 1, 2012. During this semester-long program, the participants will work with WAC faculty Pavel Zemliansky and Lindee Owens to develop materials for writing instruction in their departments and disciplines. In particular, participants will be asked to design a set of writing-related learning outcomes that are appropriate for their disciplines and the courses they teach. Then, they will create a set of classroom materials, such as assignments, assessment instruments, and exercises, to support the achievement of those writing-related learning outcomes by students. Each WAC Fellow will recieve a stipend for participating in the program and creating the required deliverables.
The program is a combination of large and small group meetings. During the plenary meetings, the participants will discuss various topics of writing theory and pedagogy and share with each other their writing instruction experiences, plans, and the materials they are developing. During small-group meetings, departmental teams will work on the creation of those materials. At the end of the program, in April, we plan to hold a showcase and presentation session, during which all three departmental teams will share the results of their work with each other and with others.
The program provides faculty members in different disciplines to participate in a sustained collaboration with the WAC Program, as well as with their colleagues from other departments, designed to improve writing instruction. We thanks our partners, the Department and Writing and Rhetoric, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and others. Special thanks to FCTL Director Melody Bowdon for providing us with a meeting space.
For more infrormation about the WAC Fellows Program and to learn how to participate in future programs, please visit the WAC Fellows in Residence Program page.